Sunday, September 30, 2007

18,249 deaths from overdoses of illicit drugs in 2004, up 550 percent per capita since 1975...

46,925 fatal accidents and suicides in 2004, leaving today’s middle-agers 30 percent more at risk for such deaths than people aged 15 to 19...

More than four million arrests in 2005, including one million for violent crimes, 500,000 for drugs and 650,000 for drinking-related offenses... [representing] a 200 percent leap per capita in major index felonies since 1975... [and this doesn't even include OJ!]

630,000 middle-agers in prison in 2005, up 600 percent since 1977...

21 million binge drinkers (those downing five or more drinks on one occasion in the previous month), double the number among teenagers and college students combined...

370,000 people treated in hospital emergency rooms for abusing illegal drugs in 2005, with overdose rates for heroin, cocaine, pharmaceuticals and drugs mixed with alcohol far higher than among teenagers...

More than half of all new H.I.V./AIDS diagnoses in 2005 were given to middle-aged Americans, up from less than one-third a decade ago...

What experts label "adolescent risk taking" is really baby boomer risk taking. It's true that 30 years ago, the riskiest age group for violent death was 15 to 24. But those same boomers continue to suffer high rates of addiction and other ills throughout middle age, while later generations of teenagers are better behaved. Today, the age group most at risk for violent death is 40 to 49, including illegal-drug death rates five times higher than for teenagers.